Are
you a little confused when people talk about creating eggs in Pokémon
games? Did you even know Pokémon can breed? What is a
quick way to breed? How can you quickly and easily hatch those eggs you
find? Here you can find answers to your questions
about breeding and understand the basics behind it.

For your convenience and viewing ease, you can skip around to different
sections by clicking on the links below.

What's the point of breeding, and why do people
always talk about it? Well, breeding can get you a Pokémon with a perfect nature,
obtain moves that a Pokémon usually can't learn by leveling up, and
it is just a way of receiving more of a rarer Pokémon that's harder to find in the wild.
If you don't know how to breed, then here is the
place to start. However, if you already know the basics, check out the
advanced guide here.

First, you need to know the locations of the places
where can breed. These are found in Daycares around the land of
Pokémon. Click here for locations.
Next, you must know what Pokémon can breed with each other. Look below
for more information!

Why is it that a Pikachu can't breed with a Gyarados? Well,
that's because they are in a different egg group. This makes sense in the fact
that a fish and a mouse aren't supposed to breed with each other anyways. So
it's helpful to know that Pokémon can only breed with other Pokémon in their
egg group.

Click here
for a complete list of egg groups and the Pokémon found in them! This is a
useful guide for avid breeders.

Remember that only Pokémon from the same egg group can breed! So once
you find two compatible Pokémon, you can finally begin the actual
breeding. Remember that the Pokémon must be of opposite gender
and in the same egg group.
The egg
that hatches will always be the Pokémon the female parent was. For example,
if I breed a female Rattata and a male Pikachu, I will get an egg with a
baby Rattata.

However, if Pokémon has no gender, or you cannot find a compatible Pokémon
to breed it with, then breed it with Ditto! The egg
that hatches will be the other Pokémon, not the Ditto. Therefore, you can get rare eggs such as Spiritomb
eggs, even though Spiritombs are genderless!

Note that some Pokémon cannot breed, and for a list of those, please read
Egg Groups. Note than Manaphy and Rotom are the only breedable
legendaries.

All you have to do now is enter the Pokémon Daycare and deposit those two Pokémon
with the Daycare Lady behind the counter. Afterwards, go outside and begin walking.

Even if Pokémon match egg groups, it still may be hard to make an egg. For every 256 steps you take, there is a
specific chance that an egg will be
produced. Once you've deposited your Pokémon, talk to the Daycare Man,
and he will say a certain thing. What he says is important to hatching
statistics!

Please note that different
games have variations of the phrases, but they all are something along
the lines below.

"The two seem to get along very well." | 69.3% chance of an
egg per 256 steps.
"The two seem to get along." | 49.5% chance of an egg per 256
steps.
"The two don't seem to like each other." | 19.8%
chance of an
egg per 256 steps.
"The two prefer to play with other Pokémon."
| 0% chance of an egg per 256 steps.

For your convenience, Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum has two Pokétch
functions that can help you. App #4 is a step counter that
can help you count the steps you take, and App #9 is a Pokémon
Daycare checker that shows you the two Pokémon you've deposited in the
Daycare, and if there is an egg or not. If you use App #9, you can tap
the Pokétch frequently to see if an egg symbol appears!

After running around for a while, an egg will be made, provided that you
followed the rules for egg groups and genders above. Talk to the Daycare Man, and if
the egg was made, he will give you it only if you have an open slot in your
party (so remember to leave an empty space in your party). If you are ready to hatch
those eggs, then read on!

After making all these eggs, you need to do
something with it... hatch them! Hatching is a long-winded process as
it involves walking (or biking) a lot. Leaving the game system on for one hour
won't do anything because it isn't a time-based process. Instead, an
egg hatches depending on the number of steps you take. Each Pokémon has a different amount of steps needed
to hatch. Check out this
page for the number of steps it takes for each individual Pokémon to
hatch!

How do you know how close your egg is to hatching? Well, if you check the
egg's summary, you will get a message similar to one of the following.
These will tell you the status of the egg. Note again that different games have varying messages displayed!

"What will hatch from this? It will take time."
"It moves occasionally. It should hatch soon."
"It's making sounds! It's about to hatch!"

In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the Pokétch App #4 is a step
counter that can aid you in counting the number of steps. This can
help you keep track of how many steps you've taken and how many more you
need before the egg hatches.

However, you don't need to walk all 3,840 steps to hatch, say, a Combee. Get
a Pokémon with the ability Magma Armor (such as Slugma) or Flame Body and keep that Pokémon
in your party. With one of these Pokémon with you, the number of steps needed to hatch an egg will be halved,
and the hatching process will be much faster than before!

After you get the hang of hatching, you might have realized
that some Pokémon that hatch out of the egg aren't the same as the female
parent. Why is that so? Well, it's because there is a special type of Pokémon called Baby
Pokémon.

These are different from basic Pokémon and can be found in the wild or
hatched
from eggs. To get a baby Pokémon, you must have certain items attached to
the parent Pokémon. To evolve baby Pokémon, you have to raise
happiness, reach a certain level, or level up under special conditions.

To learn more about baby Pokémon and their specifics, please go to this
page. Their breeding conditions will be discussed.

If you don't know where the breeding places are, they are listed below!
It is easy to tell if a place is a Daycare Center (the breeding place)
because you'll see a fence with Pokémon running around inside. If that
isn't enough description for you, then below is the list of locations.

Now, you don't have to aimlessly walk around to hatch your eggs.
There are some great spots where you can walk up and down to your heart's
content without bumping into anything (which gets pretty annoying).

In all games, the Biking Route is a good place for a long hatching
session,
especially since you can go much faster on a bike. This is because bike routes
are sloped downwards, so if you don't even have to press any buttons;
gravity will do its work. When you reach the bottom of the route, simply
press the up button and then let the bike coast downwards. Locations of
the bike routes in each game are listed below.

Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald | Above Slateport City (Route 110)FireRed, LeafGreen | West of Fuchsia City up Routes 16, 17, and 18Diamond, Pearl, Platinum | Between Eterna City and Oreburgh CityHeartGold, SoulSilver | West of Fuchsia City up Routes 16, 17, and 18

The areas around the Daycare Centers are also pretty straight and obstacle-free,
so you can hatch there if you're too lazy to Fly to a Biking Route.

In Pokémon RSE, you have a special way for hatching that involves no work
at all. Simply equip the Acro Bike and find a mud hill. Since you have the slower
bike, you can't get up the hill, so you will slide down. Even though you fall
back down, you still get steps counted. You can tape
the up button and wait until the egg hatches while you read a book or do
something else. Make sure you have lots of batteries and check back often!

Do you feel that you've got the hang of Pokémon breeding? If
so, you can move on to more advanced breeding, such as breeding for natures,
IVs, or movesets. Click here for more
information!